Let me start by saying this is obviously my fault for not considering this but I wanted to know if anyone has ever had the same experience I had this weekend.

So I hiked to the Reflector Oven area of Old Rag this weekend with a 45 lb pack full of climbing and camping gear. Anyone familiar with Old Rag knows how much of a pain this is.

I laid out all my climbing gear on a safe looking rock for the evening and went to sleep. In the morning I was looking over my gear and noticed my rope was chewed more than half way through in 2 different locations. Also, a piece of webbing was chewed up too.

I should have put my gear inside the tent with me, but I didn't consider an animal chewing up my gear.

Needless to say it hindered my climbing day and made a long, difficult hike/approach nearly worthless.

Lesson learned. Anyone else ever have an animal chew up their gear on a camping/climbing trip?

Let me start by saying this is obviously my fault for not considering this but I wanted to know if anyone has ever had the same experience I had this weekend.

So I hiked to the Reflector Oven area of Old Rag this weekend with a 45 lb pack full of climbing and camping gear. Anyone familiar with Old Rag knows how much of a pain this is.

I laid out all my climbing gear on a safe looking rock for the evening and went to sleep. In the morning I was looking over my gear and noticed my rope was chewed more than half way through in 2 different locations. Also, a piece of webbing was chewed up too.

I should have put my gear inside the tent with me, but I didn't consider an animal chewing up my gear.

Needless to say it hindered my climbing day and made a long, difficult hike/approach nearly worthless.

Lesson learned. Anyone else ever have an animal chew up their gear on a camping/climbing trip?

I bivied at the base of a route in RMNP and had my ice axe leashes, a helmet strap and a rope all chewed on by some type of rodent.

Let me start by saying this is obviously my fault for not considering this but I wanted to know if anyone has ever had the same experience I had this weekend.

So I hiked to the Reflector Oven area of Old Rag this weekend with a 45 lb pack full of climbing and camping gear. Anyone familiar with Old Rag knows how much of a pain this is.

I laid out all my climbing gear on a safe looking rock for the evening and went to sleep. In the morning I was looking over my gear and noticed my rope was chewed more than half way through in 2 different locations. Also, a piece of webbing was chewed up too.

I should have put my gear inside the tent with me, but I didn't consider an animal chewing up my gear.

Needless to say it hindered my climbing day and made a long, difficult hike/approach nearly worthless.

Lesson learned. Anyone else ever have an animal chew up their gear on a camping/climbing trip?

This stoy illustraits why it is so important to inspect fixed webbing before rapping on it. Just don't clip and go...make sure some rodent didn't chew on that section hidden at the back of the tree!

I've had a couple varmint encounters, but never with a piece of critical gear.

The first was bivvyling in the Lower Saddle of the Grand Teton after summitting via the Upper Exum. We had made the climb last minute, and so stocked up on a few groceries and just stuffed the whole paper bag in my pack for the hike in. I was awakened that night by some strange rustling sound, and after confirming that my partner was asleep, I grabbed my headlamp and turned it on. A pika had gotten inside our tent (??? it was zipped up...) and poked his head out of the top of the bag and away from his free smorgasbord. I opened the door and flung him outside with a quick but gentle backhand.

The other time I was camping in Camp 4 in Yosemite. I returned to my tent after a day of climbing to find that either a chipmunk or mouse had chewed a small hole in the lower wall of the tent, ate a bag of peanut M&Ms that I had foolishly left there, left a few shits, then exited by chewing a second hole on the opposite side of the tent. Why couldn't he have left the same way he came in?

A friend of mine left his rope, in a bag, at the base of the first tier at Clark Mountain. In the morning we returned to an annihilated rope. Since then I have left my gear hanging from a low bolt and have had no problems (not that those rodents couldn't climb up to it).Also my climbing pack has a quarter sized hole in it from varmints accessing my sunflower seeds. At Clark it is also common for people to stash their gear in Rubbermaid totes for the season and this is not a problem because parties that venture to Clark are few and respect others property, I wouldn't risk leaving my gear at heavily frequented crags.

Let me start by saying this is obviously my fault for not considering this but I wanted to know if anyone has ever had the same experience I had this weekend.

So I hiked to the Reflector Oven area of Old Rag this weekend with a 45 lb pack full of climbing and camping gear. Anyone familiar with Old Rag knows how much of a pain this is.

I laid out all my climbing gear on a safe looking rock for the evening and went to sleep. In the morning I was looking over my gear and noticed my rope was chewed more than half way through in 2 different locations. Also, a piece of webbing was chewed up too.

I should have put my gear inside the tent with me, but I didn't consider an animal chewing up my gear.

Needless to say it hindered my climbing day and made a long, difficult hike/approach nearly worthless.

Lesson learned. Anyone else ever have an animal chew up their gear on a camping/climbing trip?

When I was fixing pitched on New Dawn on El Cap, there was a Korean team next to me on some wall. They left their haul bags on the ground as they were also fixing pitches. Anyway, a bear walked up and started eating chunks of the haul bag and the food contained in the bag. I thought it was pretty funny, but unfortunate. When the Korean team got down they were pissed as shit, and they argued in Korean for about 45 min.